The Appreciation of Music - Vol. 1 (of 3)

One of Beethoven's most prominent characteristics, without a special consideration of which no account of him would be at all complete, was his humor. In the three foregoing cha...

The process of musical development we have been considering in previous chapters has tended gradually but surely towards freedom of expression and, at the same time, definitenes...

Occasionally--as in Mozart's Piano Sonata in A-major--the slow movement, in the form of a theme and variations, was placed at the beginning, and in that case the order would be...

We have seen in the last chapter some typical examples of folk-songs, which have served to give us an impression of folk-music in general, since it always conforms, in all essen...

Of the thousands of people who consider themselves lovers of music, it is surprising how few have any real appreciation of it. It is safe to say that out of any score of persons...

The type of musical structure which first took on definite shape in the work of Philip Emanuel Bach, the type which may be defined as consisting essentially of the exposition, d...

The reader who has attentively followed the story of the long and gradual development of music from the folk-song and peasant dance up to the point we have now reached, cannot b...

In the first chapter we have traced the evolution of the formal element in music, the element through which it gradually attained coherence. We have seen that this element is an...

In the last chapter we studied the most important applications of the "polyphonic" style, which originated in music for voices, to the music of instruments. We saw how in such m...

and the instinct of composers led them to treat it in a free manner and not confine it to any one key. Each of the examples of rondo form referred to above adopts this method of...

Our study of the Pathétique Sonata has shown how closely Beethoven followed the models of Haydn and Mozart, at the same time infusing into them a new spirit. The first movement...

Once musicians had begun to realize how dances could be developed into finished pieces, like the gavotte of Bach, which we discussed in the last chapter, they were quick to avai...

The slow movements of the sonatas and symphonies of Haydn and Mozart were essentially lyric pieces in which the composer relied for his effect on the beauty of his melodies. The...

Undoubtedly the most important of all musical forms to-day is the sonata, as will easily be recognized if we remember that not only the pieces which bear this name as a title, b...

a composition from certain germs contained in the original theme. And this brings up an important question: How do musical themes generate? In the Bach Gavotte a brief phrase of...

The study of the suite contained in the last chapter has brought us for the first time into contact with a cyclic form. We have seen that, as instruments developed, as the techn...

This book has been prepared in order to provide readers who wish to listen to music intelligently, yet without going into technicalities, with a simple and practical guide to mu...